UC-NRLF 


No.  94 


Health,  Education,  Recreation 


MEASUREMENTS  AS  APPLIED 
TO  SCHOOL  HYGIENE 


BY 


LUTHER  H.  GULICK,  M.D. 

DIRECTOR  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT  OF  CHILD  HYGIENE  OF  THE  RUSSELL  SAGE  FOUNDATION 


REPRINTED  FROM 
AMERICAN  PHYSICAL  EDUCATION  REVIEW,  APRIL,  1911 

BY  THE 

DEPARTMENT  OF  CHILD  HYGIENE  OF  THE 
RUSSELL  SAGE  FOUNDATION 

400  METROPOLITAN  TOWER,  NEW  YORK  CITY 


5-11-15 


£X 

<r~S 


Some  of  the  Pamphlets  that  can  be  Furnished 

by  the  Department  of  Child  Hygiene  of 

the  Russell  Sage  Foundation 

400  Metropolitan  Tower,  New  York  City 


Medical  Inspection 

54.    THE  ARGUMENT  FOR  MEDICAL  INSPECTION  AND  SOME  SIGNIFICANT 

FACTS.    Leonard  P.  Ayres,  Ph.D. 
61.    RELATION  OF  PHYSICAL  DEFECTS  TO  SCHOOL  PROGRESS.    Leonard  P. 

Ayres,  Ph.D. 

Retardation 

77.    WHY  250,000  CHILDREN  QUIT  SCHOOL.    Luther  H.  Gulick,  M.D. 

Hygiene  and  Health 

4.    HEALTH  OF  SCHOOL  CHILDREN.    Luther  H.  Gulick,  M.D. 
29.    THE  PLAYGROUND  AS  A  FACTOR  IN  SCHOOL  HYGIENE.    George  E. 

Johnson. 
48.    HEALTH,  MORALITY  AND  THE  PLAYGROUND.    Elmer  Ellsworth  Brown. 

59.  STATISTICS  ON  HYGIENE  INSTRUCTION.    Luther  H.  Gulick,  M.D. 
71.    OPEN  AIR  SCHOOLS.    Leonard  P.  Ayres,  Ph.D. 

Recreation 

67.  POPULAR  RECREATION  AND  PUBLIC  MORALITY.    Luther  H.  Gulick, 

M.D. 
76.    EXERCISE  AND  REST.    Luther  H.  Gulick,  M.D. 

Festivals  and  Celebrations 

53.     MAY  DAY  tiki^RATidNS/  ;'M£ss  Elizabeth  Burchenal. 

60.  A  SANE  ANP,PATRIOTIC  FOURTH.  '  'Mrs.  Isaac  L.  Rice. 

68.  CELEB^ATJNV?' I N|P££EV'DPNCE'D.AY.*'  'August  H.  Brunner. 

70.     INDEPENDENCE 'DAY*  CELEBRATiONe:'    Gulick,   Orr,   Gardner  and 
Hanmer. 

Use  of  School  Buildings 

56.     VACATION  SCHOOLS.     Clarence  A.  Perry. 

83.    THE  COMMUNITY  USED  SCHOOLHOUSE.     Clarence  A.  Perry. 

85.    EVENING  RECREATION  CENTERS.    Clarence  A.  Perry. 


Measurements  as  Applied  to  School  Hygiene* 

LUTHER  H.  GULICK,  M.D. 


In  calling  to  order  this  Fifth  Annual  Congress  of  the  American 
School  Hygiene  Association,  I  wish  to  express  to  the  New  York 
Academy  of  Medicine  our  appreciation  of  their  courtesy  in  in- 
viting us  to  meet,  without  expense,  in  this  building,  with  its 
splendid  record  of  service  to  the  cause  of  medicine  and  to  human- 
kind, and  its  long  list  of  physicians  who  have  been  and  are  making 
common  cause  with  all  those  who  aim  not  merely  at  the  cure  and 
prevention  of  disease,  but  even  more  at  the  upbuilding  of  human 
vitality.  We  are  proud  that  one  of  our  officers  is  also  one  of 
theirs — Dr.  Abraham  Jacobi. 

I  cannot  let  this  occasion  pass  without  drawing  attention  to 
what  I  believe  to  be  a  fundamental  need,  not  only  in  school  hy- 
giene but  in  all  that  proudly  marches  under  the  name  of  science. 
I  refer  to  the  need  for  definite  measurements  of  results  already 
obtained,  measurements  without  which  neither  medicine  nor 
education  can  ever  become  scientific.  I  do  not  need  to  remind 
you  that  it  was  through  the  use  of  measurements  that  alchemy 
became  chemistry,  astrology  became  astronomy,  physics  grew 
out  of  mystery.  The  great  need  of  the  school  hygiene  course 
today,  as  well  as  the  greatest  need  of  education  itself,  is  not  au- 
thority nor  philosophy ;  it  is  a  need  for  definite  methods  of  meas- 
uring the  effects  of  present  systems  and  practices. 

I  am  sure  that  the  occasion  has  now  so  far  gone  by  that  I  may 
speak,  without  venturing  beyond  the  limits  of  personal  courtesy, 
of  a  conversation  which  took  place  between  Dr.  William  H. 
Maxwell  and  myself  at  the  time  I  became  Director  of  Physical 
Training  in  the  New  York  Public  Schools, — a  conversation  which 
he  may  have  forgotten.  I  said: 

"Dr.  Maxwell,  let  us  take  all  of  the  schools  in  several  sections 
of  the  city, — enough  different  sections  so  that  the  test  will  be  a 

*  Opening  Address  as  President  of  the  American  School  Hygiene  Associa- 
tion, at  the  Fifth  Annual  Congress,  February  2-4,  1911. 

3 


376097 


fair  one, — and  do  away  with  physical  training  in  half  of  these 
schools,  leaving  it  in  operation  in  the  other  half;  all  other  con- 
ditions to  be  the  same  in  both  schools.  Then  we  shall  see  what 
physical  training  really  accomplishes ;  we  shall  know  whether  the 
boys  and  girls  in  the  schools  having  physical  training  become 
taller  and  stronger  than  the  boys  and  girls  in  the  schools  not 
having  physical  training."  Dr.  Maxwell  answered: 

"The  plan  is  impossible.  People  would  protest  that  their 
children  were  being  experimented  upon.  The  public  demands 
absolute  knowledge  on  the  part  of  the  instructors ;  experimenta- 
tion would  not  be  tolerated.  You  are  employed  to  take  charge 
of  the  physical  training  because  it  is  believed  that  you  know  your 
business, — that  you  have  accurate  information  as  to  the  effect  of 
the  things  you  are  undertaking  to  do." 

"But,"  I  said,  "I  do  not  know  the  actual  results  of  such  work 
as  this;  nobody  knows.  I  believe  my  methods  are  right,  but  I 
want  to  find  out  definitely,  by  making  comparative  measure- 
ments." 

"No,  it  would  never  do,"  was  Dr.  Maxwell's  reply.  "Any 
school  administrator  who  worked  on  the  basis  you  propose  would 
not  only  be  attacked  by  public  opinion,  but  would  be  put  out  of 
any  position  of  responsibility." 

Dr.  Maxwell  was  right.  This  is  in  general  the  attitude  of  the 
public  today;  yet  progress  is  not  possible  in  school  hygiene  or  in 
any  other  educational  work  if  it  is  demanded  that  school  men 
shall  have  the  accurate  knowledge  which  they  have  had  no  oppor- 
tunity to  secure. 

In  order  to  make  satisfactory  progress  along  the  line  of  school 
hygiene,  there  are  many  questions  that  need  definitely  to  be 
settled.  Most  of  these  questions  are  fundamental  not  only  with 
reference  to  school  hygiene  and  education,  but  with  reference  to 
human  progress  and  intellectual  activity. 

For  example,  what  is  the  best  age  for  a  child  to  enter  school? 
This  is  a  question  that  could  be  definitely  answered  if  we  could 
secure  adequate  data  on  the  subject.  Galton  and  Karl  Pearson 
have  given  us  the  tools,  life  itself  gives  us  the  material,  for  ob- 
taining such  data.  We  need  only  the  opportunity.  I  venture 
the  assertion  that  almost  every  person  in  this  room  has  convictions 
upon  the  subject  and  yet  that  these  convictions  are  based  upon  a 
few  personal  experiences  in  each  case.  Physicians  tend  to  put 
the  best  age  for  entering  school  rather  high ;  school  men  tend  to 


put  it  low.  In  my  own  case,  as  a  father,  I  was  influenced  by  my 
study  of  medicine  to  believe  that  one  of  the  perils  of  the  age  was 
forcing  children  to  go  to  school  too  early;  that  school  routine  at 
six  years  of  age  was  dangerous  to  a  highly  organized  girl;  and 
that  it  was  a  biological  crime  to  force  such  a  child  to  sit  still  when 
all  her  instincts  commanded  her  to  wriggle.  Therefore  my  child 
was  in  school  very  little  until  she  was  eight  years  old.  Even  at 
that  age  she  had  already  passed  the  best  years  for  acquiring 
languages,  either  by  speaking  or  writing.  She  has  been  "over 
age"  all  during  her  school  life.  I  may  have  done  her  a  great 
wrong. 

My  point  is  this:  that  neither  school  men  nor  physicians  nor 
parents  are  competent  of  judging  such  questions  as  this  ex  cathe- 
dra. Theories  and  convictions  can  never  solve  such  problems; 
their  only  solution  lies  in  a  searching  analysis  of  existing  condi- 
tions, in  measuring  results  in  a  sufficient  number  of  cases  to 
arrive  at  definite  conclusions.  Such  investigations  should  be 
conducted  in  accordance  with  modern  scientific  methods. 

It  is  concerning  the  most  fundamental  questions,  moreover, 
that  we  are  still  at  sea.  We  do  not  know  the  number  of  hours  a 
child  should  study  each  day  in  order  to  make  the  most  progress 
at  each  age.  There  is  no  one  trying  to  find  out,  so  far  as  I  know. 
We  do  not  know  how  many  subjects  a  child  can  study  to  advan- 
tage at  each  age.  We  do  not  even  know  the  most  effective 
and  economic  size  for  a  class  at  various  ages.  It  might  be,  for 
example,  that  in  a  class  of  70  children  each  child  would  get  so 
little  instruction  that  a  number  of  them  would  be  held  back; 
and  this  would  cost  the  school  system  more  than  if  there  had 
been  only  50  in  the  class.  We  do  not  know  the  number  of 
months  in  the  year  that  children  should  attend  school ;  yet  we 
compel  all  children  to  go  to  school  upon  the  assumption  that  we 
do  know. 

We  do  not  know  the  proper  length  for  each  period  of  attention 
in  different  subjects.  That  is,  in  arithmetic  a  child  of  ten  years 
might  be  able  to  give  only  ten  minutes'  consecutive  attention 
without  fatigue ;  whereas  in  history  the  same  child  might  spend 
an  hour  to  advantage.  We  do  not  know  how  much  moisture 
there  should  be  in  the  air  of  the  schoolroom,  nor  the  relation  of 
the  temperature  and  humidity  of  the  atmosphere  to  mental 
fatigue  and  intellectual  effort.  We  do  not  know  fully  the  degree 
to  which  it  is  worth  while  to  study  when  we  are  fatigued.  I  do 


not  mean  that  we  cannot  push  ourselves  beyond  the  point  of 
fatigue;  but  that,  considering  children  and  adults  merely  as 
machines,  there  is  a  point  beyond  which  it  does  not  pay  to  push, 
since  we  get  only  a  diminishing  return. 

I  might  easily  spend  all  the  time  available  for  these  introduc- 
tory remarks  in  enumerating  the  underlying  problems  connected 
with  the  education  and  the  health  of  children  which  are  as  yet 
only  matters  of  theory.  We  have  thus  far  no  units  of  measure- 
ment by  which  we  can  tell  whether  or  not  we  are  making  progress 
in  educational  methods ;  yet  the  education  of  our  children  is  the 
largest  and  in  many  respects  the  most  important  occupation  in 
which  the  civilized  world  is  engaged.  There  is  no  more  fertile 
field  in  the  whole  world  of  scientific  activity  than  the  work  of 
bringing  the  young  human  being  into  satisfactory  adjustment 
with  the  life  he  is  to  lead. 

In  the  United  States  alone,  we  are  spending  about  five  hundred 
million  dollars  a  year  on  public  education ;  this  does  not  include 
the  vast  sums  spent  by  the  great  endowments,  by  privately  es- 
tablished institutions  for  higher  learning,  or  by  private  schools. 
Of  nearly  thirty-five  millions  of  dollars  spent  for  education  in  New 
York  City  last  year,  hardly  a  dollar  was  expended  for  the  purpose 
of  measuring  the  results  we  are  getting.  This  was  not  because 
our  Superintendent  of  Schools  did  not  see  the  need  for  such  meas- 
urements; he  has  seen  the  need,  and  has  appealed  without  suc- 
cess to  the  Board  of  Estimate  and  Apportionment  for  funds  which 
would  enable  him  to  provide  the  necessary  equipment  for  secur- 
ing these  data.  We  see  the  significance  of  examining  our  coal  to 
be  sure  that  we  are  getting  the  best  and  the  cheapest;  we  do  not 
see  the  significance  of  examining  the  output  of  our  school  system, 
to  be  sure  that  we  are  getting  the  best  results  from  our  expen- 
diture. 

Can  one  of  you  here  today  name  an  educational  endowment, 
a  school  of  pedagogy,  or  any  other  agency  that  is  collecting  and 
making  available  the  evidence  on  any  one  of  these  great  ques- 
tions? There  are  several  great  funds  of  ten,  twenty-five,  fifty 
millions  of  dollars,  available  for  research,  for  giving  salaries  to 
retiring  professors,  for  supporting  education  in  the  South, — 
admirable  purposes,  all  of  them, — but  does  there  exist  a 
single  endowment  of  any  amount  whatever  for  the  purpose  of 
ascertaining  what  has  been  accomplished  with  the  hundreds  of 
millions  already  spent  in  education?  An  endowment  similar  to 


that  of  the  General  Education  Board,  which  should  devote  its 
income,  not  to  the  support  of  education,  but  to  establishing  modes 
of  measuring  progress,  and  to  the  application  of  these  measure- 
ments in  such  a  way  as  to  render  effective  the  great  mass  of 
educational  experience  already  in  existence,  would,  it  is  safe  to 
say,  revolutionize  the  status  of  education  in  a  single  generation 
and  establish  it  upon  a  scientific  basis. 

Am  I  overstepping  the  facts  when  I  say  that  there  is  scarcely  a 
city  in  America  that  is  satisfied  with  its  public  schools?  Here 
in  New  York  City  an  investigation  has  been  proposed ;  and  those 
who  follow  educational  matters  know  that  in  city  after  city  severe 
criticisms  of  the  school  systems  are  constantly  coming  up.  Even 
school  men  themselves  disagree  when  they  come  together  to  dis- 
cuss these  questions;  you  cannot  get  a  group  of  educational 
people  together  without  having  a  controversy  upon  some  one  of 
these  problems.  In  fact,  as  individuals  we  cannot  settle  these 
matters  to  our  own  satisfaction.  They  can  be  settled  only  by 
ascertaining  results — by  measurements  of  what  we  are  doing. 


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